Your gender labels you as “other,” and “other” doesn’t belong. Or at least doesn’t deserve the right to invade this space without adhering to the accepted female look and actions.

Don’t give opinions. Don’t correct stats. Just shut up, agree with the man and look pretty. Not enough symmetry in your face to be considered attractive? Then get out.

Sports is a breeding ground for toxic behaviors and thoughts that make it a free-for-all. Add social media that provides a closer, more immediate reactionary method and you have the perfect storm.

The constant harassment that female sportswriters experience for expressing opinions or merely reporting the facts led to the viral PSA video “#MoreThanMean - Women in Sports ‘Face’ Harassment,” produced by Just Not Sports. Chicago-area journalists Julie DiCaro and Sarah Spain had a group of men read back the tweets, Facebook posts and comments to the two that had received these.

While some may be surprised at the numerous calls of “b----” and sentiments like, “I hope your boyfriend beats you,” or “one of the Blackhawks players should beat you to death with their hockey stick like the WHORE you are,” those females in the business didn’t blink an eye.

For female sportwriters and women in media in general, responses like this are unfortunately part of the job. Like their male counterparts, female reporters receive several mean comments. However, unlike the men, comments directed toward women tend to be sexualized and more violent in nature.

I’ve had my own share of nasty tweets and comments questioning my intelligence, my degree, my commitment to the programs I cover, my relationship status and even my hair. But I have not received any death threats or calls for me to be raped. Yet.

"Yet," because for a female in sports media, it’s more a matter of when that will happen, not if. "Yet," because the Twitter account that had been specifically created to send me harassing tweets for three days straight only to be deleted when the account owner got bored is just a few steps away from threats.

"Yet," because I dared to be in this space.

But why is this the norm and not an unfortunate exception? Sports culture.

Sports has long catered to the manly man type of guy, or at least those who envisioned themselves as an alpha male. It was a safe zone to cater to one’s base nature of violence and anger. One that is being encroached upon.

Females, if involved at all, were dressed in slinky, barely there skirts and gyrated in front of viewers as part of a performance or as the blonde and buxom sideline reporters. But more and more often, female spots writers who don’t fit the prescribed eye-candy mold are stepping into these roles and excelling at it. Much to the dismay of those men who prescribe to the hyper-masculinity perpetuated by sports.

To these small-minded individuals, a female who comes into their space and doesn’t play by their rules needs to be undermined in the most misogynistic way possible - looks and sexuality.

By calling a woman a fat, slutty b----, those individuals believe they are reclaiming their space from every female reporter who opens her mouth or writes a story or simply exists on the beat.

There’s nothing to reclaim. Sports isn’t supposed to be just a man’s world anymore. Title IX and generations of ceiling-breaking women reporters put an end to that.

A word of advice to those who still feel threatened by the mere presence of women like Spain and DiCaro:

Don’t give your opinion. Don’t try to correct the stats. Just shut up and listen as you move over and give us the respect.

Can’t make space at the table because striking out with sexualized threats is more important? Why don’t you just get out?